Simply Belle

I haven’t really eaten much of Filipino food lately because I have been eating mostly weeds, and juices. During lunch, I would sometimes just gulp a glass of green juice and half of avocado — other times, plain rice and slices of avocado. Or, I will gobble an orange and some crackers. Weird, huh?

In the morning, all I have is a glass of juice made from fruits and veggies that my husband lovingly fixes. You might think there isn’t much to it but let me give you an idea as to how much goes into the making of the juice. It includes the following:

carrots
cucumber
celery
slices of ginger
beets
granny smith apples
sweet potato or kamonte
spinach
kale
and sometimes pears when they are on sale at the store.

Now, if I have to eat them raw the way they are, I wouldn’t even come close to eating a fourth of them. And we are supposed to consume 8 servings of fruits and veggies a day, right?

At dinner, I satiate myself with just plain steamed spinach from the garden and plain rice. Sometimes, I would pop a can of lego sardines into the pan, add some some tamarind or guava soup base, and then toss in a bunch of spinach. Voila, I have delicious spinach sauteed in sardines with sour broth. I tell you, it doesn’t take much to please me.

Sorry, I digress. Anyway, today, I have this immense craving for Filipino food, but as much as possible, I would like to stay away from pure meat dishes. I simply don’t enjoy meal without vegetables or salad anymore these days. How about you?

After much thought, I settled for pancit. Normally, my husband doesn’t care for pancit because he thinks it is dry, greasy, or soggy. But, this particular one I cooked today was a big hit. The consistency and the flavor were just perfect.  Just plain luck, I guess. He complimented me not just once, but twice. He said that if pancit were to taste like this, he doesn’t mind eating it often. Yes, my husband is now a pancit lover.

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This particular outfit that I am wearing in the picture has been in a bag that is meant to be taken to Salvation Army or to be shipped home –which one happens to pop into my mind first. I had it shoved away in the closet for 10 years, and since I gained 10 pounds over the years, I had no choice but to let go of it to give room to the new wardrobe (not that I fancy buying clothes these days when I have two girls in college) how painful it may be. I like this particular ensemble very much because of its comfort, plus it cost me an arm and a leg to buy it brand new.

Anyway, this afternoon, I was in a mood to do yoga in the comfort of my living room. I thought I would have my husband take pictures of my yoga moves just for fun. It took me a while to find a comfortable yoga outfit from amongst the pile in my closet. And since I haven’t done my laundry, I couldn’t find an outfit that suit both yoga and the kind of weather we have. They were probably all in the laundry pile.

So, out of desperation, I turned to the plastic tucked below my wardrobe that is awaiting to be tossed away , and retrieved whatever I thought would fit me. I found this gray outfit. I tried it on, and it wasn’t bad at all, except that the blouse might have shrank a bit over time. Hey, last time I put it on, it was a bit snug, and my number 1 fashion critic, my husband, totally despised it. “It is showing your derriere a little too much,” he quipped. I grunted and snarled at him back., grrrr!

I have been doing yoga for the last 3 semesters, and I love every minute of it. The poses that I am going to be posting here may look really easy, but trust me, if you haven’t done yoga, it is not a piece of cake. In yoga, it is all about proper alignment, moving gracefully into a pose, holding a pose for a while, and getting out of the pose gingerly in order to get the full benefit. So far, and 3 semesters into it, I have progressed quite astonishingly but I think I have a long ways to go before I can handle hard poses like the acrobatic type of moves that you see in magazines. Or I may not even succeed in getting that far considering my age. But one thing I am sure of is I have become quite flexible. Certain challenging work moves that usually gave me discomfort or pain, now I can do with ease and confidence. It seems like I am gradually getting my youth flexibility back.

At first I was a bit apprehensive in taking yoga because how it is possible to lose weight without vigorous exercises like walking, running or doing aerobics? But as I learned more about it and got deeper into the world of yoga, I started seeing results. I have more flexibility, I am leaner without having to run on a daily basis, and I am calmer. As we get older, we are limited to what we can do like I used to be able to run, but after I hurt my knee, running is now out of the question.

Anyway, let me show you some poses that my husband took.

Picture 1:  I was trying to put the soles of my feet together but I couldn’t.  I need more training.

Picture 2: I was getting ready for a triangle pose, trying to stretch my body sideways as far as I could without feeling uncomfortable.

Picture 3: Downward dog pose. This pose is named as such because it resembles a dog when it streches itself out. This pose helps strengthen, stretch, and reduce stiffness in the legs while shaping and making the upper body stronger.  Holding this pose for a minute or so helps stimulate and restore energy level and regular practice of this pose rejuvenates the entire body and stimulates nervous system.

Picture 4:  Triangle pose. Not an easy pose to do as you have to make sure the body is perfectly aligned, avoiding twisting, to get the full benefit.

Picture 5: Bend over pose keeping both feet straight.

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I can’t hold still. It is snowing in my neighborhood right now and Lexi is home for the weekend. Which means, she has to traverse the treacherous mountain road to go back to her university today. And she doesn’t even have a 4-wheel drive car, is barely an adult who is inexperienced at driving on snow. If she only listened to my endless begging and warning earlier not to come home for the weekend, we would have spared ourselves with the worry. Kids! Kids!

I am pacing back and forth in the living room looking out through the window hoping that the snow will taper off anytime soon. And there seems to be no letting up in sight. When I get this nervous, I get the feeling of literally having “cold feet.” Lots of scary thoughts come popping in my mind that I try to brush off. My husband noticed I was unusually quiet. It is because aside from overly nervous, I am composing this blog so I can get my mind occupied with other matters than dwelling on something that I have no control of. Makes sense?

And coincidentally, today is Sunday, which means that the plowers are still in their dreamful slumber in between the sheets. I am not even sure if they work on Sunday.

Well, let me back up a little bit to explain why she drove home despite of my incessant warning. Earlier, the weather forecast said the snow was expected to hit our area yesterday, which was Saturday. But surprisingly, snow didn’t show up as expected, and instead we were endowed with beautiful sunny weather all day Saturday, though rather cold.

Lesson learned for kids to pay heed to parents’ warnings and the weather advisory seriously. The weathermen are equipped with satellite/radar that monitors the weather conditions. The parents have been there, and have done that, and so they know what is best for you.

So, judging from what the weather exhibited, she made an unwise decision to drive home. She said she wanted to spend her pre-Valentine’s birthday with us before she visits her sister in CA on her birthday next week. Although, she hasn’t been home since the first week of January, we must have driven over to her place about three times. So, it is not like we haven’t seen each other in a while.

Of course, who doesn’t want to spend time with a daughter especially on her birthday? When I called her at 4:30 PM yesterday, she was within 15 minutes home. I was ecstatic and worried at the same time. “You silly girl, why did you go against my advice,” was all I could say.

We don’t know if she will be able to drive back to her place in time for her school tomorrow. And the snow is pouring down so heavily still.

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Bless her soul, this post is written in her memory.

In Bagumbayan where I spent my childhood, I am forever grateful and honored to have lived next to a neighbor who was mentally challenged, and yet with uncommon good sense that belied her true condition, shouldered single-handedly the responsibility of taking over her aging father. Inspite of her handicap, she was very hardworking and responsible. Early in the morning, she would talk to herself excessively that even in your deep slumber, you would be awoken almost instantly. We didn’t do anything to stop it because knowing her state of mind, there was nothing we could do. Instead we adjusted our bed time during her silent hours so that we got plenty of sleep by the time she started getting visits from her invisible noisy visitors. We considered her our alarm clock.

She survived by eating mostly steamed veggies, and fresh catch from the swamp. I never saw her fry her food or use coconuts in her cooking. She mainly boiled her food long enough so that her toothless father could gum on his food. The father was confined on a makeshift seat turned into bed in a second floor. He basically slept, ate, and pooped. Come to think of it, it was a big mystery where he did his thing because he was mostly upstairs 24 hours a day. The only time I would see him downstairs was during meals. He most likely did it in arinola upstairs and let his daughter discard it in the big public bathroom–the back stream.

As a busybody that I was, I would come over to their place, usually during mealtime, and had a fascination of watching eat his meal. His meal was usually consist of boiled kamote tops, boiled taro leaves, or boiled shrimps. Being toothless that he was, he made a rather interesting gumming noise, as if eating a delicious dish. Sometimes, I felt like scooping a few bites off his dish, but I managed not to.

Amazingly, she was indebted to no one. She made a living by catching shrimp and fish at the swamp, and sell half of her catch to the neighbors. Proceeds went to buying necessities like matches, vechin, and kerosene gas. Unlike most people in the barrio, she never ran out of food like supas or bread.

When she was low on food supply, she would go to the mountains, and gather vegetables regardless of who they belonged to. She claimed they were all hers. She also went to a Chinese bakery in Virac (which she claimed her own also), and spent time bossing around people in an amusing way. She was harmless, and so, instead of people shooing her away, they usually gifted her with supas/bread and other stuff to take home. And they looked forward to her next visit.

When we butchered a pig, she would be the first person that came to mind to receive pieces of meat and cooked meat dish. She was grateful, of course. She didn’t have running water so she fetched water using a bamboo container and stuck it through our fence to get water from our faucet. She timed it when someone was around to turn on the water for her. She didn’t need much as she used it mainly for cooking. She did most of her washing in the big river behind our house.

Her father lived to be a 100, while her life was cut short by a dog bite with rabies infection. Her relatives couldn’t afford to get rabies shots for her which were crazy expensive. It also claimed the life of his brother and a lot of people all over the province some 10 years ago.  She was 75 years old.

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